My Seven Top Editing Peeves

I don’t mean to sound grumpy, but sometimes I get a bit exasperated when even experienced editors make these mistakes. So, in the spirit of sharing tips, what’s your editing (or directing) peeve? Don’t forget to include a solution!

Here are my top seven–along with lessons and suggested fixes:

First Peeve:
I can’t make out what an English-speaking, talking head is saying because of an accent or a mumble. Lesson: viewer comprehension rules. 

Fix: It’s OK to subtitle even just a phrase.

Second Peeve:
Voiceover has been edited over an image containing more than five words of text. Lesson: viewers can’t process two streams of language at once.

Fix: move the voiceover, and replace with music or sound effects.

Third Peeve:
Scenes include gratuitous entrances and exits, such as boarding a plane or opening a door. Lesson: unless it’s an artfully shot “clean entrance” or “clean exit,” such “ins and outs” undermine a scene’s drama.

Fix: Unless they reveal important information, cut these shots

Fourth Peeve:
Edits are consistently made on static images, when any motion in the frame has stopped. Lesson: movement on screen allows the viewer’s eye to easily transition to the next shot.

Fix: where possible, cut on movement—even on, or just after, the proverbial “blink of an eye”

Fifth Peeve:
Two shots rather than three. Lesson: “Rule of threes” means that three of anything— title cards, cutaway shots, photographs, archival clips—creates a rhythm.

Fix: to improve pacing, leverage your two shots by adding a third

Sixth Peeve:
Tiny, trendy fonts are used for subtitles, text cards, lower-thirds, and credit roll. Lesson: Editors under forty may not realize that older viewers often can’t read text that small.

Fix: Use a sans serif font (like Helvetica or Ariel) that is 26-32 points in size. Also, pale yellow is better than 100% white

Seventh Peeve:
Narration sounds boring, like a textbook being read aloud. Lesson: Writing for the screen is markedly different than writing for print.

Fix: see my Ten Tips for Writing Documentary Narration.

I’m also offering for free the electronic version of my book Documentary Editing. Check out Chapter 14 on “Making Micro-Cuts: Editing Aesthetics.”